


Light as Soft as Feathers

by Hedgi



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, Not Quite a death fic, messing with Cisco's powers, technical afterlife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 21:17:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6626875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hedgi/pseuds/Hedgi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompted on tumblr, kinda AUish.</p><p>Laurel Lance wakes up on a grassy hill, under a tree, and nothing hurts.<br/>A friend has some answers, maybe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Light as Soft as Feathers

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Mary Oliver's "White Owl flies into and out of the field"-- "Maybe death/isn't darkness after all/but so much light/wrapping itself around us/ as soft as feathers..."

Laurel blinked her eyes open, gasping as she sat up. The hospital, she’d been in the hospital, bleeding. _Dying._ There weren’t sheets under her hands, though, no slab of a hospital bed. It was soft, springy. _Grass?_ It was all gone, the staccato fluorescent lighting, her father, her friends, the smell of antiseptic and old-penny blood. Even before she placed the surroundings, let her brain understand what eyes took in with alarming clarity, fingers probed for the wound. It wasn’t there. Clean, whole flesh met tender finger tips, no sign even of stitchery or staples or scarring. _What?_

The roar in her ears was replaced by the sound of birdsong, sparrows, maybe, a hermit thrush. A warm breeze swept against her hair, rustling the grass beneath her, the tree branches that spread above her. Very slowly, Laurel rose to her feet, cautious, nervous. How had she gotten here, why was she here? As her legs took her weight, she realized it was more than the stab wound gone. Nothing so much as ached, not even the old injuries, battle wounds from months ago, not even the way her shoulder always seemed to be stiff.

One explanation presented itself to her, and she quailed against it. Was she dead? Was this an afterlife? If so, it was lonely. Shouldn’t her grandparents, her fallen friends, be waiting? That was how it worked, right? A place after Death had always presented itself in her more morbid thoughts as some vast expanse of white brilliance, with everyone in gleaming robes and carrying little harps. Not exactly her idea of a good time. But then Sara—and she had wondered if there was anything but darkness. It seemed there was.

She stood on a grassy hill, low and sloping, like one that had overlooked a park she’d played at as a child. Even the tree seemed familiar, the branches so live the spreading apple tree she’d climbed as a kid, perching in the crook of them, safe as in a mother’s arms. Reaching out, she laid a quivering hand against the bark, and it was warm and solid under her touch.

“Laurel?” She turned, startled, at the achingly familiar voice. Tears might have come, but would not. Cisco Ramon stood at the base of the hill. He gave her a grin, melancholy though it was. “Man, am I glad to see you.”

“Cisco? What is this place? I was—I was dying, I was—“

“Dead,” he winced. “Yeah, I know. I don’t really know what this is, either. I mean, I have some guesses, but God’s mysteries and all that.”

“I don’t understand.”

He shrugged. “You died. If you’re here, that means—I think—It might not stick.”

“What? No, I don’t want the Pit, I—“ She remembered what it had done to her sister. To Thea.

Cisco shook his head, long hair catching in summer sunlight. “Not like that. Time travel. If you’re here, that means someone’s gonna try and stop it, somehow. You have a window, sort of.”

“And you, too?” she asked.

“I guess. I mean, I don’t think I died this time. I’ve been here…three times. Well, not here. Different places. We were all here, once, only it wasn’t here, here, and we weren’t all together. I think it must be part of my multiverse nonsense powers. I dunno. Last time I was with some guy who named his kid Metagron or something. No. Degatron? Eh. I think I can move around. I’m pretty sure I’m not dead, though. Tend to remember things like that, so this might just be a vibe.”

“A—what? Before?” Laurel sat heavily, or tried to. No pain radiated, the landing felt more like flopping into a pile of pillows.

“Yeah, October. Oliver and Barry had some dumb plan, we all went out in blue fire, Barry fixed it. I’m the only one who remembered, though. Anyway. Best I can figure, it’s a…a stopping point. Like, King’s Cross Station, in Harry Potter. Only no creepy dying baby demon thing.”

Laurel couldn’t stop the laugh. “Well thank God for that. It’s freaky enough.”

Cisco sat next to her, shoulder to shoulder. “Could be worse. First time I was here, my here, it was the Star Labs basement. Not fun. You have a better Safe Place, let me tell you that. Whoever’s screwing with time, or whatever, gets a chance to stop whatever happened. Maybe more than one, I dunno. And then you go home. Back, I mean. That’s how it’s been before. Not that I’m an expert.”

“You know more than I do.” Laurel bit her lip, or tried too, but there was no sensation of pain. “What happens if—they fail? Do I die for real? Do I—what—“

“Shh, c’mere.” Cisco looped an arm around her, soft and warm. “Don’t worry about it. Barry and Oliver are world class idiots sometimes, but things tend to work out. Plus, your sister’s got a time machine. You’ll be fine.”

Laurel nodded again, wishing she could feel her heart racing, pounding. “ You always remember this place?” she asked, softly.

“Yeah. Least, I think so. And I remember all my vibes.”

“Then…If—something happens…if…you’ll tell them for me?”

Cisco swallowed. “Tell them what?”

“That I’m sorry. And that I’m gonna haunt Oliver’s ass if he keeping up his Angsty McAngstpants secret keeping shit. That I love them all.” She ducked her head for a moment, but not for long.

“I will. I promise.” His voice was steady.

“Thank you.” She nodded again. “ Thank you, Cisco. For everything. I—I’m scared. God, I’m the Black Canary, I knew this was a possibility, but…”

 “I’ll wait with you. Caitlin’s gonna be piiissssed if this is a vibe, it always freaks her out when I Vibe too long. But I’ll wait with you.”

The sun above them didn’t move, though warm wind stirred the grasses and their hair, mingling black and gold. Overhead, a bright yellow bird perched in the crown of the tree, and trilled.

**Author's Note:**

> *shrugs* hope it was ok


End file.
